The prisoners demanded, in a letter they sent to Wa’ed Society for Prisoners and Ex-detainees, all the international, human rights and humanitarian institutions to immediately intervene to release captive Maysara who suffers from serious illnesses, such as throat cancer.

They asserted that, at any moment, he might meet the same fate of captive Arafat Jaradat, who had recently died in jail.

There are nearly 4700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails; hundreds of them suffer from serious and chronic diseases. There are 150 patient captives who need to undergo urgent surgeries.

The Israeli occupation authorities refused to release Abu Hamdiya after the doctors proved that he suffers from cancer, which led to the deterioration of his health condition, as part of the policy of medical neglect in the Israeli jails.

Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a statement on Saturday that the prisoner Abu Hamdiya had been transferred more than once to Soroka hospital, adding that he suffers from high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.

Abu Hamdiya was arrested 11 years ago and Ofer military court sentenced him to life imprisonment on charges of resisting the occupation.

He had been earlier arrested four times in the sixties because of being active in the ranks of Fatah movement. He was also one of the deportees to Jordan in 1978.

His sister I’tidal Abu Hamdiya said that her brother returned to his homeland in 1998, but the IOA re-arrested him in 2002.

Captive Abu Hamdiya has been deprived of family visits. However, he keeps up high spirits and a strong will in spite of his health condition and the illnesses he suffers from.

I’tidal Abu Hamdiya appealed to local and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to intervene in order to release her brother due to his health status, as well as the bad detention conditions.